


half way there

by hanbunnotsuki



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-25 18:01:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12041256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanbunnotsuki/pseuds/hanbunnotsuki
Summary: Where Lance and Pidge finally get to play the video game they bought, cuddles are had, and realizations made.





	half way there

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired by Toto-san's [artwork!](https://twitter.com/eeocc/status/905012434498347008) Plance is so cute and such a delight to write, I feel so refreshed whenever I write them.

“Lance! Laaaance! Lancelancelancelance!!” Pidge cries, storming into Lance’s room and dives into the teen boy’s bed. Lance is of course, still in his beauty sleep, so Pidge throws herself on top of Lance’s stomach and shakes him. “Wake up!”

“Oof! _What the hell, Pidge!?_ ” Lance squeaks out, his breath forced out of him by Pidge’s action. He takes off his blindfold to glare at her, but Pidge just gives him a shit-eating grin. “This better be good. I haven’t gotten my required sleep time and if this affects my skin, I swear to god–”

“Oh, who cares about your smooth baby skin,” Pidge pinches his cheek mockingly, earning her an indignant yelp. “I have better news for you! Nay, the _best_ news!”

“What could possibly be better than maintaining my spotless, perfect skin?” Lance grumbles as he squirms away from Pidge, stretching his arms up in a yawn.

“Hunk’s done it!” Pidge is bouncing her body restlessly, unable to contain her excitement.

“The genius has made us a custom monitor we can hook up and play our video game!”  
  
Lance gasps dramatically, his eyes bulging out and he clutches his heart. “Which means…!”  
  
“We can play Mercury Gameflux Two!” The two shouts in unison and shares a high five.  
  
“Oh man, I’ve missed playing video games,” Lance hops off his bed and pads across his room, opening his clothes drawer.  
  
“Me too. We used to play them a lot back in the Garrison, huh. Remember how we had that fighting game tournament one time?” Even though their time at the Garrison isn’t that far gone, Pidge feels like it happened eons ago.  
  
“Hell yeah, that was _awesome_ ! Maybe if we can find a copy of that game somewhere, we can do it again with the gang.”    
  
“That sounds fun,” Pidge replies, smiling at the thought of teaching Allura and Coran the intricacies of Earth’s video games. Or perhaps they had a similar thing back in Altea?  
  
“Uh, Pidge?” Lance is raising his eyebrows at hers, his hands holding his usual set of clothes. Her only response is to raise her eyebrows back at him, tilting her head in question. “I need to change my clothes.”  
  
“Sure? Go ahead?” Pidge says, getting slightly confused. It’s not like Lance needs her permission to change.  
  
“Can you...go? Or at least look away?” Lance says carefully.  
  
“Oh my god, you wuss. Just go change, I don’t care,” Pidge waves her hand dismissively at him.  
  
“Well, I do! Why don’t you go and set the game up and I’ll meet you there?” Lance pushes Pidge out of the bed and towards the door before she can even open her mouth to protest.  
  
“Fine. Meet you in the break room,” Pidge huffs and rolls her eyes. She really doesn’t get why Lance is making such a big deal out of it.  
  
“Don’t start without me!” Lance yells one last time before letting the door close.  
  
“Then hurry up!”  


* * *

 

They played the game for three hours straight.  
  
Hunk’s joined them for a bit, making sure the monitor is working correctly and mostly watching them play before he headed out to the kitchen.  
  
Even Keith observed them for a while before asking for a turn, attentively listening to Pidge’s explanation of the gameplay. He went to training after a while, though.  
  
Coran passed by and marveled at how ancient Earthian video games are, compared to the Altean virtual reality games that were popular back in the good old days. Both Lance and Pidge insisted that is why it’s called a _retro_ game.  
  
Allura paid them a visit to scold the two of them for spending their time playing video games for so long instead of doing their assigned training. Thankfully, Shiro came to the rescue by telling her that he gave them the day off to rest (he actually didn’t). Bless the man.  
  
And now, only Pidge and Lance are left in the room, still not budging from their positions in front of the monitor with controllers in their hands.  
  
“I’m getting hungry. Should we take a break? I’m gonna go check the kitchen, see if Hunk left us some food to snack on,” Lance says as he puts aside his controller and stands up.  
  
“Can you get me a drink too? And if you see any purplish brownie-like thing, don’t take it. I tried them yesterday and it was yucky,” Pidge comments and makes a ‘blergh’ sound, not taking her eyes off the screen as she finishes off the last enemies and hits pause.  
  
“Aye, aye!”  
  
Pidge shuts her eyes to give them their much-needed rest, pinching the bridge of her nose to relieve some tension. The game has been great so far, with challenging missions and interesting side quests. But the pace has come to a slow, and they’ll have to grind some maps to level the characters up and farm some materials to upgrade their weapons first before going to the next stage.  
  
“Back. Here you go.” Lance hands Pidge a bowl full of many different things she doesn’t recognize. “I have no idea what those are, but there’s none of that purple brownie-thing.”  
  
“Thanks,” Pidge says, accepting her share of food. She takes a bite of a pink dumpling-like thing and chews. Hmm, not bad.  
  
They continue playing as they eat, taking small bites of food here and there in-between the game. After a short while of grinding, Lance finally speaks up.  
  
“Man, I hate grinding. It’s so boring! Can’t we go to the next quest already?” Lance whines, his lower lip jutting out into a pout.  
  
“I’ve told you, Lance, we’re still not strong enough for the next one. Come on, just a little more,” Pidge nudges his shoulder with hers, trying to encourage him.  
  
“No mooooore.”  
  
“Fine, then I’ll deal with the grinding. You go lie down.” Pidge says with a tone of finality, patting the space next to her.  
  
“What?” Lance knits his eyebrows in confusion but does as he’s told. “O...kay? What now?”  
  
Pidge scoots over, positioning herself closer to Lance. She then makes herself comfortable, tucked against Lance’s torso. “There. Now you just wait until I’m done getting us ready for the new quest.”  
  
“Alright. So I’m a cushion now. Cool.”  
  
But no more words of protest comes out of Lance’s mouth as he watches Pidge defeats enemy after enemy, gaining experience for their party and leveling them up. After toiling away from map to map, Pidge finally deems them ready to go to the next step. She’s about to tell Lance to get ready for some action when she notices the light snoring coming from next to her.  
  
Now that Pidge thinks about it, she should’ve noticed the change in the rising and falling of his breathing. The teen is out like a baby. Looking at Lance sleeping so peacefully draws a yawn out of Pidge.  
  
Oh, what the hell. They can continue the game the next time they have a day off. And it’s better to stop before Allura forces them to. Pidge quickly hits a save point and turns off the console, chucking the controller away. Another yawn escapes her mouth.  
  
_Just a quick nap…_  
  
She leans back closer toward Lance’s warmth and closes her eyes. Her consciousness fades to the sound of Lance’s heart beating and not long after, she falls into a deep sleep.

 

* * *

 

Pidge wakes up slowly, blinking the sleep away as she resists the temptation to go back to sleep. It’s just so warm and cozy that even the hardness of the floor isn’t much of a deterrence for her. Wait a minute. Floor?  
  
As much as she loathes to, Pidge moves to sit up. She notices a cloth draped over her that wasn’t there before when she fell asleep. Upon closer look, it turns out to be Lance’s jacket. She turns to send the still sleeping Blue Paladin a fond look. _Ever the gentleman._  
  
“Lance. Lance, wake up.” Pidge calls, gently shaking his shoulder.  
  
“Nfwha?” Lance startles awake, squinting at the lights and then at Pidge. “Mmph. Morning. Night?”  
  
“I honestly have no idea.” Though from the ache that creeps all over her body, Pidge can make an educated guess that quite some time has passed. “We should go back to our rooms. Allura’s probably going to make us do double training tomorrow to make up for today.”  
  
Lance hums in agreement, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He then gives Pidge this _look_ and doesn’t say a thing, stretching a moment of silence between them. “You know, you really shouldn’t let your guard down that easily.”  
  
“Huh?” Pidge can only blink at him. Her brain is still too sluggish to predict where Lance is going with this. “What do you mean?”  
  
“You were practically cuddling me just now. And earlier you–you just _sat there_ when I was about to change!” Lance squirms away, trying to put some distance between the two of them. “You’re a girl! You should pay more attention to things like this.”  
  
“Wait, you’re saying all this because you now know that I’m a girl? Seriously?” Pidge narrows her eyes at him, feeling a kindling of anger starting up down her spine. “Oh grow up, Lance! Me being a girl doesn’t mean that things have to change between us. We’re friends aren’t we?”

“Well yeah, we’re friends! But imagine if you let your guard down with another guy and then he takes advantage of that–”  
  
“It’s not like I’m going to do this with any other person!” Pidge snaps back. “I only do this because I’m with you!”  
  
“I–You–Argh!”  
  
One moment Pidge is sitting up against Lance, another and she is lying flat on the floor, caged between Lance's arms, looking up at his rarely-seen serious face that is only inches away from hers. It happened so suddenly that her breath is caught in her chest.  
  
“What I mean is, you’ve got to be more aware what your actions can do to others alright? What you think as insignificant might not be so to others. You’ve got to realize that I’m a guy too and…” Lance’s words trail off and his eyes widen as if he’s just processed what he had just done. “And uh. Yeah, so remember that. I’m gonna just. Go back to my room.” Lance suddenly retreats, instantly up on his feet and inching back toward the door. “I’ll catch you later!”  
  
Pidge doesn’t see him go, but she can hear the sound of fading footsteps bolting and disappearing into the castle’s hallway.  
  
It takes her a moment to recover, but when she’s done taking in Lance’s words, she curls up into a fetal position and covers her mouth with her hands.  
  
Because now her brain is awake and all she can think of is how Lance basically said that he is conscious of her as a girl and that he wants her to see him as a guy, and _holy quiznak_ . She tries to chase away Lance’s expression earlier but it keeps coming back, and his words keeps replaying in her mind, and the warmth that enveloped her as she sleep–  
  
Pidge silently screams into the palms of her hand. Her face is burning, her ears are burning, and she swears that her heart is burning too.  
  
How in the name of quiznak is she going to face Lance tomorrow?


End file.
